[danso]

Oh no doubt, I think these instances are poor form, and in this young age of IoT, companies as big as Nest/Google should bend over a bit backwards for early adopters when it comes to sunset period and possibly even rebates...if nothing else than to treat them like loss leaders.

But later on, as always-on-devices are the norm...I do think it'll be more acceptable -- with the appropriate regulations and consumer protections -- to kill a device at the end of the cycle instead of designing it to operate as a zombie, in the same way that users accept that MMOs and other multiplayer-heavy games are heavily dependent on company servers...though in that case, it's easier to design a game to allow non-official servers so that the community can carry on after the official shut-off...but that's where the analogy of video game == important home device ends, of course.